The Bottom Line: Future of LB, Downey sites nixed by Tesla?

It's been nearly two years since the abrupt end of a cross-county battle between Downey and Long Beach over which city Tesla Motors would call home for manufacturing its Model S sedans.

Much-needed jobs were on the line and both cities wooed the electric car company with incentives, hoping Tesla would pick either the former NASA Apollo project site at Lakewood Boulevard and Columbia Way in Downey or the former Boeing 717 plant off Lakewood Boulevard in Long Beach.

But Tesla's choice to relocate to a closed Toyota plant in Fremont left officials with large vacant spaces and bad tastes in their mouths.

Fast forward to earlier this month, when the Downey City Council supported the $170 million Tierra Luna Marketplace development at the site Tesla once dissed.

The 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use development will feature shops, restaurants, a 16-screen cinema and professional and medical office space.

It's also expected to generate more than 3,300 jobs and $4.2 million annually in sales, property and hotel occupancy taxes.

Meanwhile, the status of the former 717 manufacturing site remains unchanged, said Debby Arkell of Boeing Realty. The 1 million-square-foot hangar was home to Boeing's 717 passenger jet before the company decided to shutter the plant nearly six years ago.

Arkell wouldn't expand or speculate on potential transactions.

"We continue to market the property, seeking businesses that would be a good match for the local community and for Boeing," she said.

Onetime plans for a movie studio on the site, announced with fanfare in 2008, also never materialized.

These disappointments left many wondering what else could locate at the old Boeing plant.

Randy Gordon, president and CEO of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, said he would love to see Boeing Co. move some of its manufacturing back to the city.

If not, he said, that property could be subdivided into 100,000-square-foot parcels that would be ideal for small to mid-size companies.

"Aviation and aerospace made Long Beach," said Schipske, whose 5th District encompasses the site. "It would bring so many people to Long Beach and I think we need to start rethinking the kind of businesses we need in Long Beach. And I think tourism and history would be a huge magnet."